A tip of the hat this week to all of the educators who returned to the classroom this week or will soon.

While virtual academies have been available since before the pandemic, for most teachers this full-time comprehensive distance learning is uncharted territory. It will likely come with new challenges — bored kids, technical glitches, hypercritical parents and teaching kindergarteners how to use the mute button, to name a few.

We wish you the best of luck, and hope to see educators, administrators, parents and students all treating each other with extra grace and patience this year.

A tip of the hat also to child care providers who have continued to care for children throughout the summer and now, in some cases, have helping students with distance learning thrown on their already full plate.

Many of the area providers we have spoken with are working more hours than ever, but have also cut their own salaries to make up for lost revenue that COVID-19 regulations have caused.

These workers, often operating without the same sort of financial safety net as other essential workers who can fall back on unemployment insurance, are a crucial part of our economy and they don’t get enough recognition.

A tip of the hat to the enumerators who have been braving the heat this summer to collect census data from people who have dragged their feet about self-responding to the 2020 Census.

A more complete count brings many benefits to Eastern Oregon communities. It increases our representation in Salem and in Washington, D.C., and brings more federal and state grant dollars our way. Companies from restaurants to manufacturers also use census data to determine whether there would be enough customers and/or workers to support expanding their business.

In an ideal world, everyone would take five minutes on their own to respond to the census, as required by law, rather than requiring the government to spend taxpayer dollars on sending workers to their home again and again. But we appreciate those who signed up for the job and are doing their best to educate people on the benefits of adding their household to their city’s count.